💬 Five Misplaced Expectations of the Bible 📖
What We Expect from the Bible—And What It Actually Offers
In last week’s post, I focused on five misconceptions we have about what the Bible is. This week, in keeping with a similar theme, I want to turn our attention to the misplaced expectations we bring to the Bible.
Here’s what I mean: the way many of us were taught to read and interpret the Bible was built on a set of assumptions about what the Bible is and how it works. Those assumptions created for us a series of expectations—expectations for what we’d find within the pages of the Bible, and what the texts themselves would mean.
Here’s how I said it last week:
But what if some of our assumptions and expectations about the Bible are grounded in misconceptions? And what if those misconceptions are, as a result, keeping us from appreciating and engaging the Bible in the most helpful and transformative ways?
These expectations can be spoken or unspoken, conscious or unconscious. They train us—ingrain within us—interpretations that we assume are “how it’s always been” or “just clear and plain.” The truth is that most of the time, our expectations of the Bible aren’t how it’s always been understood, nor are they clear and plain to everyone. After all, we have more than 40,000 denominations who can’t agree with themselves or each other!
These embedded expectations, when met with the reality of what the Bible really is and how it actually works, often leave us with no good options. We either:
Double down on what we already thought and find ourselves defending things as literal, like a six-day creation, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.
orGo the opposite direction, deciding that the Bible is total rubbish because our expectations weren’t met.
Is there another option?
My contention is that many of us have inherited a set of expectations for the Bible that the Bible itself did not ask for and is not capable of bearing. That isn’t because of some failure on the part of the Bible. It’s because of the assumptions we bring to it.
Let’s explore this more specifically:
Expectation #1: The Bible is historically and scientifically accurate.
Reality: Our understanding of “history” as an objective reporting of facts is a relatively modern phenomenon. Ancient views of history were far more subjective—not grounded in literal, objective facts, but often told as interpretive stories meant to convey meaning.
A great example of this: the genealogies of Jesus found in Matthew and Luke. They’re wildly different. Some interpreters have twisted themselves into all kinds of bad hermeneutical gymnastics to make them both literally, historically, and factually true. The problem is, they aren’t any of those things.
For the biblical writers, a genealogy wasn’t about literal or historical relationships. Especially for a great person, a genealogy was composed in hindsight to connect that powerful life to other remarkable lives that came before. Genealogy was about destiny, not history.
Likewise, the Bible is not a scientific text. The writers of Scripture weren’t trying to tell us how we got here, but to help us answer the even bigger question: why are we here?
To expect the ancient writers of Scripture to have possessed a 21st—or 51st—century understanding of the cosmos, medicine, or humanity is not only unrealistic, but it’s also unfair. They wrote stories, like creation stories, just as most other cultures did. Those stories aren’t fact—they’re fiction meant to speak to the deep, universal questions that have always kept humans up at night.
Letting the Bible be what it is—the product of particular people in particular times and places—is the first step toward really taking it seriously.
Expectation #2: The Bible’s moral and ethical teachings are timeless and reflect God’s perfect will for humanity.
Reality: The Bible is a mixed bag when it comes to morality.
Yes, it contains powerful moral commands:
Love your neighbor.
Love your enemy.
Care for the vulnerable.
Work for justice and peace.
But the Bible also includes texts that condone genocide, enslavement, and patriarchy.
If we expect the Bible to simply tell us what to do—without requiring discernment or moral judgment on our part—then we’ll be sorely disappointed.
This is why arguments like “Atheists can’t be moral” are completely baseless. No one gets their morality only from the Bible. People of faith are constantly choosing which parts of biblical morality to embrace and which to ignore or reject. Everyone is.
We also adopt moral ideas that are totally foreign to the Bible. That’s because our sense of what is good, just, and moral has grown over time—not because God has changed, but because we have. Our capacity to learn and evolve has expanded.
Expectation #3: The Bible has one message or perspective throughout.
Reality: As I mentioned last week, the idea of univocality—that the Bible speaks with one voice—is a red flag. It’s often tied to the ideas of inerrancy and infallibility, neither of which the Bible claims for itself, and neither of which a careful reading supports.
The Bible is a conversation, not a monologue. It contains many voices and many perspectives that interact with one another as we read.
One of my favorite examples of this is the contrast in prophetic visions:
In Isaiah 2, we get a vision of peace:
[God] shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.
(Isaiah 2:4, NRSVue)
That’s a future I can get behind.
But the prophet Joel had a different idea. Writing perhaps several centuries later, he called for war:
Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate yourselves for war;
stir up the warriors.
Let all the soldiers draw near;
let them come up.
Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears;
let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”
(Joel 3:9–10, NRSVue)
Which text is biblical? Both.
Which text is right?1
Which one represents God's will?
That’s our responsibility to discern. The Bible invites us to thoughtfully and critically engage it in the work of making a better world.
Expectation #4: The Bible contains all the answers we need.
Reality: Growing up in the ’80s, we all wanted to get our hands on the teacher’s edition of our textbooks—it had all the answers in the back.
Unfortunately, that same assumption has been placed upon the Bible. People often treat it like a answer book or a Magic Eight Ball that can solve any question.
But when we pay attention, we realize: the Bible doesn’t give a lot of answers. What it does do is help us form better questions.
Our desire for certainty, coupled with the ideas of inerrancy and infallibility, lead us to expect something the Bible never promised.
Instead, our tradition invites us to wrestle, in community, with the hard questions—discerning with the Spirit what is right for this moment.
Anything less is an abdication of our responsibility.
Expectation #5: The Bible is an objective witness to God.
Reality: Objectivity is not something available to us.
Are there absolute truths? Well, sure. Some things are either true or not—like the question, “Is there a God?” There’s an actual answer to that question. But access to the objective knowledge of that answer is simply beyond our pay grade.
We are subjective creatures. That isn’t a failure, it’s just our reality.
The writers of Scripture bore witness to their own experiences of God—experiences shaped by their culture, context, language, and limitations. They interpreted those experiences and shared them.
We can honor their experiences without being bound by their explanations—just like I hope my children will go beyond my explanations when their own lives call them to do so.
These are just a handful of the expectations I inherited for the Bible.
How about you? What would you add to the list?
Let me know in the comments!
And, if you found this post helpful, please consider sharing it!
🗓️ UPCOMING EVENTS:
August 28-31: The Wild Goose Festival, Harmony, NC
September 4: Conversation Coalition: Who is a “Real” Christian?, Grace UMC. Mt. Juliet, TN
September 5: Conversation with Dr. James White, Nashville, TN
September 14: Suncrest UMC, Morgantown, WV
October 16: Theology Beer Camp Pre-Event (Faith Leadership in Times of Crisis), St. Paul, MN
I mean, Isaiah, obviously.
Nice explication, Josh.